The row between the Defence Minister and former military top brass has escalated, with Stephen Smith saying his performance has been attacked as payback for his strong stand over the so-called Skype sex scandal.

The former commander of Australia's forces in the Middle East, Major-General John Cantwell, launched a stinging attack on Mr Smith in an opinion piece published in the weekend's Fairfax newspapers.

The Opposition used Tuesday's Question Time to pursue Mr Smith over his commitment to the job and Australia's troops in Afghanistan.

In the article, General Cantwell accused the Minister of having "no respect for those who choose to serve in uniform".

He says he came to that conclusion after Mr Smith's first visit to Afghanistan, in which he said the Minister asked no questions at briefings and was unhappy when soldiers asked him "unscheduled questions".

"The abiding impression I was left with was that he merely tolerated people like me and the troops I commanded," the general wrote.

On Tuesday, the Opposition asked Mr Smith to confirm the accuracy of General Cantwell's article.

Mr Smith said it was a "wrong and unfair depiction" of his visit.

"I was surprised, I was disappointed, and I was saddened by his contribution," Mr Smith told Parliament.

"I did not believe it was either a accurate or fair depiction of that trip or of my commitment to Australian forces in the field.

"I reject absolutely any criticism or questioning of my commitment to our forces in the field."

Mr Smith said he would not get into a running commentary on the matter.

"Major-General Cantwell is a respected former member of the Australian Defence Force," he said.

"He has made his own substantial contribution and I'm not proposing to get into a running commentary about who said what to whom.

"It was a wrong and unfair depiction of my visit to Afghanistan and a wrong and unfair depiction of my contribution to our forces in the field."

Labor Senator Mark Bishop, however, was not so diplomatic, labelling General Cantwell's article vicious, contrived and vacuous

"And it had no point because as an attack on a minister of the crown, making those sorts of remarks the writer knew and the newspaper knew that no minister of the crown would descend into the gutter and respond to that sort of commentary coming from a former two-star or three-star general," he said.

Motivation

Mr Smith said the criticism had been motivated by his handling of sexual misconduct allegations at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

"Let's be frank about where this has come from... I make no apology for standing up for an 18-year-old member of the ADF when she was vulnerable and in distress," he said.

"I make no apology for making very strongly the point in principle that it is wrong to bring into play the conduct of an innocent victim of an alleged sexual assault."

Tensions between the Minister and some members of the Defence Force establishment have been strained over the handling of the incident, in which consensual sex between two ADFA cadets was allegedly filmed and broadcast over the internet without the woman's knowledge.

The Academy's commandant Commodore Bruce Kafer was sent on leave after Mr Smith criticised him for allowing a separate inquiry into the female cadet to continue while Defence investigated the Skype affair.

Last week a report cleared Commodore Kafer of any error of judgment but Mr Smith has refused to apologise.

General Cantwell, who retired from the Army last month, wrote at the end of his piece that his judgment had been proven correct by "the utterances of Smith... in relation to the commandant of the Australian Defence Force Academy and the inexcusable Skype sex scandal".